Jon Sloper

Jon Sloper. The designer and programmer for Alacrify.

Alacrify grew out of Jon's previous business 'Jon Sloper Originals' in 2006, building on the portfolio of clients he'd gathered at the time.

Jon is Managing Director of Alacrify as well as doing lots of design and programming for the company. Jon uses a variety of programming languages to produce websites and web applications for Alacrify's clients. Currently he uses a mixture of XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL and Javascript in many of Alacrify's projects.

He's also skilled with Photoshop and InDesign (and to some extent with Illustrator) which are his tools of choice for print design work. He's also been known to take the occasional photograph for a client and many of the photos on this site are from his portfolio.

Business Background

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly. This watercolour was painted by Jon in 1998 and was part of a series of natural history miniatures that he sold as originals and prints during his time as an artist.

For many years Jon worked as an artist, specialising mainly in representational watercolours with subject matter drawn from natural history, the environment and human artifacts such as houses and vintage cars, selling his work through craft shows across the south of England as well as on the internet.

As a graphic designer, Jon has a built up a wide and varied portfolio, from business cards to exhibition stands, professional journal publishing and advertising design.

Jon's website design experience began in 1996 and includes many HTML/CSS "brochure" sites and many sites built using PHP and MySQL databases to produce integrated website/office systems for SMEs. Where possible all Jon's website designs are highly accessible and strive for AAA compliance with WCAG 2.0 standards. Jon is also skilled in Search Engine Optimisation - the art of getting your site listed highly in Google and other search engines.

Getting Personal

Happy Hens. These are Jon's ex-battery hens enjoying the warm spring sunshine.

Jon's passions include music and gardening. A keen pianist and "Guitar Hero" impressario, music is always part of his rest and relaxation. From classical to rock and most stops in between he enjoys a playing a diverse repertoire of songs and instrumental pieces.

He's also a very keen amateur gardener. The daily routine of watering and checking plants in the raised beds, polytunnel and greenhouse gives Jon a grounding in the real world that balances the "virtual" businesses that occupy most of his working day.

Last year he acquired four ex-battery hens which happily chatter away outside his office. Occasionally they like to pass comment on the telephone conversations that Jon has with his clients, which frequently causes amusement on the other end of the phone.

Keeping in Touch

Jon has been using Skype for a number of years now as a means of keeping in touch with clients and colleagues. The little icon below shows whether Jon is online or offline. If you want to get in touch with Jon by Skype you can click on the icon to make contact.